What is Sin?

By

Lee

Sin is a function of the human spirit and originates there as thoughts that weather acted upon or not is still sin.  If I desire to murder someone and think in my mind how to go about it but because of fear of being caught never do the crime it is still sin and is worthy of death.  What you think is what you are, if you think like a murderer but never actually murder, you are still a murderer.  Jesus taught us that even to think of committing adultery was the same as actually doing it. This would apply to all other types of evil acts as well.

You do not have to actually do the act for it to be sin, just think it.  Jesus described this sin of thought condition that people have by saying outwardly we appear as whitened sepulchers but inside are full of dead mens bones.  In other words we may appear sinless on the outside but our inner sinful thoughts are death and unclean.

Many people, including those who claim to be teachers, pastors and preachers, think sin is only the actual act and never consider the thought that gives birth to it.

The problem with us humans is that our human spirit became defiled so that every thought and imagination of our spirit is only evil continually, just as it was in the days of Noah it is today.  Our human bodies are only the vehicle we use to commit the acts or speak the words that are sins we have in our spirit.  If people could not think evil, they could not do evil but we do think evil and we do commit evil. Our mouth does not speak evil all by itself and our bodies do not commit evil all by itself, we control with our spirit what our mouth says and what our body does.  Sin is a spiritual thing that can be manifested in a physical way, the cause is our spirit but the effect is the physical manifestation.  I may think of murder but I must direct my body to complete the act, the cause is my thought the effect is the act.  Human beings have a spiritual problem called sin that has defiled our human spirit and is a nature that is the part of us that produces death in us. The ten commandments tell us what good and evil is, the knowledge gained by Adam and Eve when they sinned against God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  We all now have knowledge to some degree of what good and evil is.

Therefore to him that knows to do good and does it not to him it is sin. James 4:17.  

In order to repent you must know you have done evil and not good. The law teaches this lesson as it produces Godly sorrow that leads to repentance.  This then is to bring us to Christ and the new covenant.  The law shows us our problem but cannot provide the answer; the answer is Christ. Once this answer is found you never go back to the problem, you stay with the answer.

Isaiah 42:21 The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake, he will magnify the law and make it honorable.

This knowledge of good and evil is dangerous because if we sin we will die because the wages of sin is death.  The law only addressed the effect of sin but not the cause of it.  This is why God magnified the law in two commandments which address the spirit of man, the thoughts and intents of the mind. The law was enforced by human witnesses accusing a person of breaking the law, this person was stoned to death.  In the case of the tenth commandment, thou shalt not covet or lust, this process broke down because no human being can know the thoughts and intents of the human spirit of another person. It will be the spirits of just men made perfect.  Your thoughts are your own and unknown to other people as long as you do not voice them or act them out.  This means that you can harbor all kinds of evil in your spirit but as long as you do not make them know to others, the law would be powerless to address them.  You would be a sinner but under the law would never be caught and punished.  All the Ten Commandments can be violated in this way. People unaware of your inner thoughts may think you to be a “good person” but if they could know your inner thoughts what would they think.  The law cannot address the true problem of sin in human beings and that is why righteousness cannot come by the law.  People who think the law is the way that seems right will find in the end that it is the way of death.  This is the lesson of the schoolmaster. The Apostle Paul said that Gods love is the fulfillment of the law, that Gods love will do no harm, no evil.  The law of Christ is to love God and neighbor with the love of God that we receive by the Holy Spirit of God. We must undergo a change in nature; from sinful to righteous.

The law cannot produce righteousness but Gods love can.  Righteousness is being unable to sin and always doing good and never doing evil and is a way of thinking that is the way God thinks and the way Jesus thinks. 

When a person comes to God through Jesus and receives the Holy Spirit they also receive some of this Godly love that empowers them to begin anew their life in a process of coming out of this evil thought pattern and to create in us a sound mind that over our lifetime produces in us fruit unto God.  We can begin to overcome sinful thoughts that lead to acts, if sin can be nipped in the bud, in the spirit where it begins, then progress can be made, sins can be overcome.  It is Gods love in us that makes this possible and not trying to follow the Ten Commandments, we are under grace and not law.  While in the flesh, still human, we can still sin but these sins are covered by grace upon sincere repentance and asking God for forgiveness. This process was not part of the law; the law only brought death and bore no fruit unto God and no forgiveness.  The new covenant is by far a better covenant by which we draw near to God.

Free Will & Godly Love

By

Lee

Free will and Godly love are necessary for human beings to be made after Gods image and according to His likeness.  Adam was not the fulfillment of God’s purpose for humanity, Adam failed to become that purpose as it was offered to him in the tree of life.  If you examine the Hebrew words for likeness and image used in the creation of Adam, you will see that Adam was a shadow or phantom image but Jesus entered this world as a great light. Adam was only a shadow of what God had in mind for humanity and man’s true potential was in the tree of life.  God knew in eternity that Adam would sin and acquire the knowledge of good and evil and God withheld immortality from Adam that was in the tree of life.  Having the knowledge of good and evil is not sin because God and the holy angels have this knowledge but it was the taking of this knowledge against Gods command that was sin.  Adam would have acquired the knowledge of good and evil from the tree of life but with this knowledge the Holy Spirit of God, and this without ever having sinned.  Adam would have become what God wanted for him and us.  Humanity has the knowledge of good and evil but without God cannot control this knowledge and will sin and sin brings death.  This is how sin entered the world and death by sin.  What we have to always keep in mind is that God will complete His will in us regardless of which tree Adam would have eaten.  For God to have known in eternity that Adam would sin and yet allowing Adam a choice between the two trees demonstrates to us that God wanted Adam to use his free will to make the choice.  If humanity is to be made after God’s image and likeness then we must have free will because God does.  Godly love is righteousness and cannot sin for God is love and God is righteous, this is how God has always existed and He never changes.  The Holy Spirit that was in the tree of life would have shed abroad in Adam’s heart (human spirit) the love of God, Adam would be like God in this way and he would have never sinned and would have been made unable to sin just as God and Jesus are unable to sin.  Remember that Godly love does no harm or evil and is the fulfillment of the law.  In the process of time, God would later change Adam into a spirit being with everlasting life and the children of Adam and Eve would follow the same path.  If Adam had obeyed God, he would have been the messiah.  We know things did not happen that way and because of this, a second Adam would have to come and do what the first failed to do.

Jesus was the second Adam and was created by God as a perfect man in righteousness and true holiness, Jesus was what Adam would have become if he had obeyed God and ate of the tree of life.  This is why Jesus is the tree of life.  Jesus is the resurrection and the life and our access to God the Father.  God desires that in faith we believe this and eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood otherwise we have no life in us.  Jesus is the tree of life.  All of this proves that God in eternity always had Jesus in mind as His plan and not Adam.  Scripture declares that Jesus was God’s eternal purpose and that all things God created were because of and for Jesus.  Jesus was the only righteous man who ever lived and he became the sacrifice for our sins.  We who believe need not suffer everlasting death but because of faith in what God did through Jesus we can have everlasting life.  The death Adam and all humanity dies would have been everlasting – forever but God in eternity provided for us His only begotten son through whom there are two resurrections.  This means that the death we die now is as temporary as the physical life we live but the death Jesus saves us from is the second death that can come only if we with spiritual knowledge reject God.  God has free will and God is love, this is the key to understanding God’s plan for humanity.  At the second advent and the millennium, it will be as the garden of Eden again with the second Adam ruling the Earth.  All people will have the Holy Spirit and hear the message of the law and the gospel.

The law was to teach us our problem and the gospel is to show us the answer.  We have to know both to know the whole story.  The law contains the knowledge of good and evil and requires humanity to live by it because it was the choice Adam made, whatever a man sows that shall he also reap.  The gospel is the new covenant message of the tree of life who is Jesus Christ.  If we can come to the understanding of our problem, Adam’s sin, then come to hear the message of the gospel, the answer to our problem, then we have hope.  When we are converted and receive the Holy Spirit, we Passover into a new covenant and the power of God’s Holy Spirit takes over and replaces the law with grace. It will then be God who works in us by Godly love and God who gives us the ability both to will and to do His good pleasure.  We worship God not with physical works like keeping days, abstaining from certain foods, paying tithes or any other physical thing because God is spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth.  If the law can save us, why would we need Jesus?  Many try to combine law and grace but doing this cancels out both it is one or the other and law will save no one.  You are save by grace through faith without the deeds of the law.  The law is for unrighteous people until God shows them His grace; it is a deterrent to sin but cannot eradicate sin.  Grace leads us to the kingdom of God where the saints will be changed and sin finally ended.  This will be the fulfillment of what God said, “let us make man after our image and according to our likeness.”  Jesus was the first born of many, the first new creation, a human being who was in God’s image and likeness.  Jesus is the beginning of this creation God had in mind in eternity, not the physical but a spiritual creation.  Once God’s will is done this physical will be burned up and replaced with a new heaven and Earth wherein dwells righteousness.  God’s intent has always been to have other beings similar to Himself in righteousness, love and everlasting life.  God alone remains omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and eternal and no other being will ever have these things.  The other beings will have God’s character or nature and this because they agree with God’s will for them.  God will not force anyone against his or her will to have salvation because God wants what He has for us to be our will also.  Jesus said, “not my will but your will be done.”  We must be of the same mind as Jesus.

Overcoming Sin

By

Ray

KJV John 16:33

 33.  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Jesus overcame because he had no sin and was incapable of sin.

KJV Romans 12:21

 21.  Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

KJV 2 Peter 2:19

19.  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

Adam was overcome by Satan---Jesus overcame Satan and the world.

KJV 1 John 2:13

13.  I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.

KJV 1 John 4:4

4.  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

How do we overcome?

KJV Philippians 2:13

13.  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

People who are saints have the Holy Spirit and no longer work for their salvation under the law but rather in faith trust in God who works in them in Godly love to fulfill all righteousness. God’s spirit begins to change sinful human nature to be conformed to the nature of Jesus who was the image and likeness of God.

KJV Ephesians 6:13-18

13.  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

 14.  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

 15.  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

 16.  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

 17.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

 18.  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

To truly overcome one must have patience to understand that it is a process over our lifetime and by using the Holy Spirit and having all the things provided above we shall be in the end victorious.  While yet in the flesh we still sin but through Jesus have forgiveness of these sins upon sincere repentance.  God loans His own righteousness to us to act as a shield until we are born into the kingdom of God at the return of Jesus where we will be changed both bodily and spiritually possessing everlasting life and made unable to sin.  This is Gods will for us and we must be in agreement with His will and desire this change by our own free will.

KJV 1 Timothy 6:12

 12.  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on everlasting life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

KJV Ephesians 6:12-13

 12.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

 13.  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

KJV Romans 8:31

 31.  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

God’s purpose for creating man was to have “other beings” in His likeness and image, not other Gods but a new creation, a new kind of being.  Jesus was the first of these new beings, the first born of many.  The likeness and image we are to become is what Jesus was as a man. Once this is done then we will be ready to receive everlasting life, salvation, and enter Gods kingdom.

Our hope is to become composed of spirit, live forever unable to sin in peace and indescribable joy.  God will work in and through us to insure that we receive this crown as long as we love Him and obey the covenant of grace through Jesus Christ.

Worldwide Economic Collapse

By

Lee

Most people by now are aware that there is trouble in the world’s economic system.  The main problem that caused the world’s economic system to come to this point is greed.

The lust for money and power drives people who pursue these things mad and the measures people of this sort will employ to increase both has caused the current financial crisis that will lead to a total global economic collapse.

Statement of caution: when reading this article keep in mind that this author nor any of those who support me will engage in any hatred of any form against any people and remind all readers that they should be of the same mind.

Usury is the charging of interest on a loan.  The history of usury dates back to ancient times and was a practice forbidden by God when applied to Israel but was permitted when applied to non-Israelites. 

KJV Deuteronomy 23:19-20

19.  Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:

 20.  Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

God promised Israel that they would lend to many nations and would not be a borrower.

KJV Deuteronomy 15:6

 6.  For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

Israel broke the covenant with God and God has for this age divorced Israel but Israel has continued the practice of usury even upon their own people.

Today people who call themselves Jews own and control the central banks of the world and lend money at usury to almost all nations.  The Rothschild’s are Jews and lead a small group of Jewish bankers, with the Rothschild’s at the head, who have employed the fiat money system used in the world to gain control of the world by control of the money supply.

God has also said that Israel was not to oppress the stranger but it is plain that high interest rates on loans are oppression.  The prophet Ezekiel says……..

KJV Ezekiel 22:12

 12.  In thee have they (the Jews) taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.

Jesus uses similar words against the Pharisees.

KJV Matthew 23:25

 25.  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

The whore of Babylon controls the riches of the world but it comes to nothing.

KJV Revelation 18:3

 3.  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

KJV Revelation 18:19

 19.  And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

The Spirit through King David speaks.

KJV Psalms 15:5

 5.  He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

The wisdom of Solomon.

KJV Proverbs 28:8

 8.  He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.

God through Isaiah the prophet.

KJV Isaiah 24:1-3

 1.  Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

 2.  And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

 3.  The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

The practice of usury is not found with Gods people toward anyone, as you receive, freely give expecting nothing in return for God loves a cheerful giver, one who gives from the heart.

Usury has destroyed lives and nations as our eyes have seen today with the world economic crisis.  Let us pray that God will soon send His Son back to this Earth to end not only this evil but all evil.

MARTIN LUTHER, Table Talk of Martin Luther, translated by William Hazlet, page 43

"But the Jews are so hardened that they listen to nothing; though overcome by testimonies they yield not an inch. It is a pernicious race, oppressing all men by their usury and rapine. If they give a prince or magistrate a thousand florins, they extort twenty thousand from the subjects in payment. We must ever keep on guard against them."

MARIA THERESA, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1771 - 1789)

"Henceforth no Jew, no matter under what name, will be allowed to remain here without my written permission. I know of no other troublesome pest within the state than this race, which impoverished the people by their fraud, usury and money lending and commits all deeds which an honorable man despises. Subsequently they have to be removed and excluded from here as much as possible."

WASHINGTON, GEORGE, in Maxims of George Washington by A. A. Appleton & Co.

"They (the Jews) work more effectively against us, than the enemy's armies. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties and the great cause we are engaged in... It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago, has not hunted them down as pest to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America."

This prophecy, by Benjamin Franklin, was made in a "CHIT CHAT AROUND THE TABLE DURING INTERMISSION," at the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1787. This statement was recorded in the dairy of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a delegate from South Carolina.

"I fully agree with General Washington, that we must protect this young nation from an insidious influence and impenetration. The menace, gentlemen, is the Jews.
In whatever country Jews have settled in any great number, they have lowered its moral tone; depreciated its commercial integrity; have segregated themselves and have not been assimilated; have sneered at and tried to undermine the Christian religion upon which that nation is founded, by objecting to its restrictions; have built up a state within the state; and when opposed have tried to strangle that country to death financially, as in the case of Spain and Portugal.

CHURCHILL, WINSTON. 20th century British politician. In 1920, he wrote a long newspaper article of the recent Bolshevik seizure of Russia. After praising what he called the "national Jews" of Russia, he said:

"In violent opposition to all this sphere of Jewish efforts rise the schemes of the International Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up among the unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race. Most, if not all, of them have forsaken the faith of their forefathers, and divorced from their minds all spiritual hopes of the next world. This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxemburg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this world-wide revolutionary conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It played, as a modern writer, Mrs. Webster has ably shown, a definite recognizable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworlds of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of the enormous empire.
There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creating of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution by these international and for the most part atheistic Jews. It is certainly the very great one; it probably outweighs all others. With the notable exception of Lenin, the majority of the leading figures are Jews. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from the Jewish leaders... In the Soviet institutions the predominance of Jews is even more astounding. And the prominent if not the principal part in the system of terrorism applied by the extraordinary Commissions for combating Counter Revolution has been take by Jews, and in some notable cases by Jewesses. The same evil prominence was obtained by Jews in the brief period of terror during which Bela Kun ruled in Hungary. The same phenomenon has been presented in Germany (especially Bavaria), so far as this madness has been allowed to prey upon the temporary prostration of the German people. Although in all these countries there are many non Jews every whit as bad as the worst of the Jewish revolutionaries, the part played by the latter in proportion to their numbers in the population is astonishing. ("Zionism versus Bolshevism: A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People." ILLUSTRATED SUNDAY HERALD, London, February 8, 1920.)

I wish to stress at this time that I do not hate the Jewish people and you should not either but facts are facts and we need to be aware of how this world operates and who is pulling the strings.  Gods people need to stay out of politics and all affairs of carnal man and wait with patience for the return of Jesus.  Let God deal with all the problems because vengeance is Gods and He will repay. 

Reality

By

Lee

Reality is what is real, what you see all around you every day that you can touch, taste, smell, hear and see.  If you are a person of faith that believes in God, can you directly by these physical senses, detect the reality of God?  If God were physical, then the answer would be yes.  God however is not physical; God is a Spirit and cannot be detected by any of our physical senses.  The only way someone can believe in the existence of God is by faith. 

God created what we call reality and our reality is the physical universe in which we live.  Human beings were designed by God to interact with this physical universe and all that we can know or understand apart from God's Spirit is only the physical reality.  The Bible defines as carnal those people who are limited to this physical reality.  Scripture uses other words like fleshly or worldly to describe the carnal human being.  Carnal people therefore use the things of the physical creation to relate to a Spiritual God because it is all they know.  The universe, which is the physical creation, is composed of four things; time, space, matter and energy.  The carnal mind uses these four components to worship a Spiritual God.  The component of time is used to specify the time or times assigned for worship and these are called holy days that are observed daily, weekly, monthly or annually.  The physical space used to conduct the worship ceremony is called the holy place, space is place.  The objects used during the ceremony are composed of matter and are considered holy.  The energy expended by the worshippers are their works, work requires the use of energy.  All of these things then are directed to a Spiritual God in order to please Him and gain His favor.  Usually the ceremonies are repeated in a yearly cycle, continuously, thus becoming a ritual or vain repetition performed by carnal minds.  This is an accurate description of the worship practices of ancient Israel.  It is also an accurate description of modern day professing Christians.   Do today's churches have holy times, places, and objects in which they expend their energy in an attempt to reach a Spiritual God?  Physical things cannot be used as a conduit to connect ones self to a Spiritual God who insists that He be worshipped in Spirit and in truth.  This type of worship is the worship of the creation rather than the Creator.  When a person by faith in Jesus receives the Holy Spirit, a new conduit or connection is made with the Creator.  The person is said to become a new creation and not of this world.  Their worship style is changed and their mind is changed or renewed by the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit.  The physical body remains the same but the human spirit undergoes a transformation from the physical reality to the spiritual reality.  Spiritual knowledge and wisdom is given through the Holy Spirit to "see" spiritually that there is another reality that is not physical and temporary as the one we have previously known.  Anyone who becomes a new creation in Christ is exposed to a new reality in which all things become new.  The old things pass away and are replaced with new spiritual things.  This change is an inner change of spirit and not an outward change of body and as such goes undetected by those who have not experienced the same change.  Scripture says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, that is our fleshly body is not that part of us that receives salvation.  It is the spirits of, "just men made perfect" that will inherit God's kingdom.  God is concerned with the human spirit because that is what He is making in His own image and likeness and not our fleshly bodies.  In the resurrection at the return of Jesus the saints receive glorified spirit bodies and a transformed human spirit. Those who are of the Spirit of God are in a transformation process that culminates when our salvation promise is fulfilled and our fleshly bodies are replaced with spiritual bodies. 

After the Eden sin, the hope and promise given to humanity by God is salvation, therefore it becomes necessary that we be called and chosen out of the sinful world first spiritually, then bodily.  The spiritual happens before the bodily because God will prove us first before we inherit everlasting life in His kingdom.  We must run and finish the race that is set before us first before we receive the crown, we must grow in grace and in knowledge, we must bear fruit unto righteousness and we must endure to the end.  The crown is not given until the race is finished.

God provides for all that we need to achieve salvation and the only part we have is to submit to the working of His Spirit in us by our own free will choice to do so.  Thy will be done, meaning God's will, not ours.  While a person is carnal they have no free will to make the choice to serve God.  Carnal people are servants to sin or to Satan who holds them captive to do his will.  No person in this state can come to God; God must draw them to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ.  God stirs up the carnal human spirit by granting them repentance; by producing in them Godly sorrow because of their sin and instills within them a desire for truth.  Carnal rituals and physical forms of worship are replaced by the working power of the Holy Spirit of God.  God imparts His own nature to the convert chief of which is His love that will fulfill in us all righteousness.  These spiritual qualities of God's nature are given or imputed by faith alone without our performing any works of any kind.  This entire process is called "Grace" and that is what we are saved by.  The worship of God becomes spontaneous without regard to time or place and has no need to expend energy in works or of matter in physical objects.  God's love is the force and power guiding the life of the convert to love God and neighbor and it is God who works in and through you both to will and to do His good pleasure.  Of your own self you can do nothing because Christ in you is your hope of glory.   Some carnal people in the world's churches try to mimic the spiritual with things they call slain in the spirit or drunk in the spirit.  They also try to imitate tongues and healing but fail in all these things to match the example of Christ and the Apostles.  Holy laughter is another false way that is used to mimic the spirit.  When carnal flesh attempts to mime the Holy Spirit the results are worthless and meaningless.  Some churches also have do's and don'ts that amount to law keeping such as; no alcohol, keeping the Ten Commandments and infant baptism.  The keeping of days that are viewed to be holy time like Sunday, Saturday, Christmas or Easter and holy places like their church building or objects like images of what they think is Jesus or of the cross are all physical carnal methods of worship. 

The true worship of God is 100% spiritual and 0% physical because God is 100% Spirit and 0% physical.  The way God is, is the way He should be worshipped.  The saints do not worship God with their bodies because your body is not your spirit.  Your human spirit is what enables you to think, reason, plan and design. Your human spirit is your intelligence, your conscience. You can think and have awareness of yourself and others; your human spirit is what makes you human.  This is the part of you that God connects  with His Holy Spirit and is the part of you that receives salvation.  Your human spirit controls your fleshly body because you cannot do anything that you cannot think of.  The fleshly body is the vehicle used by your human spirit to act out what you are capable of thinking.  Once you become a saint, your human spirit is merged with God's Spirit and the control over what your body does, what your mouth speaks and your mind thinks, must be given over willingly by you to God.  In this way both your body and your spirit will become a living sacrifice to God.  Scripture says that you have been bought with the price of the blood of Christ and that you no longer belong to yourself but to God.  You lose your life of self to gain life by becoming God's property that He dwells in and works through.  God's Spirit is to become the controlling Spirit in your life and not your human spirit.  The will of God becomes your will and the nature of the Almighty becomes your nature.  This is called conversion, you have been called and chosen to spiritually exist in another reality totally different from the one you came out of.  If you remain faithful to the new reality and do not rebel against the Holy Spirit to retreat back to the old reality you are promised everlasting life in the kingdom of God at the return of Jesus Christ.  It is of absolute importance that you do not try to hide your sins but rather confess them to a loving God who will forgive and give you the power to overcome sin.  This requires a continual examination of ones self in all honesty to determine if we are indeed submitting ourselves to the will of God.  There is no sin that God will not forgive except the sin we do not ask forgiveness of and seek God's power to overcome.  Unless you repent you will likewise perish.  God grants us this repentance under the grace He gives to us because of our faith in His Son. I know that at this very moment we all have sins in our lives that we need to address using the guidelines that I have written above.  Dear brethren in Christ, keep your garments clean and white, free from wrinkle and spot.  The enemy wants us to not address our sins and causes in us feelings of fear or shame so that we fail to seek God's forgiveness and help.  Sin is impossible for us to overcome alone and sin is not forgiven if we do not ask.  Do not allow Satan to rob you of your crown. 

Spiritually speaking, we are in the true reality that will exist forever and has existed eternally.  We have been called out of the darkness of our past life of evil into the light of Christ that shines in righteousness and love.  We have tasted of the heavenly gifts and have been given a glimpse of the new reality. Brethren, it is God's desire for all of us to someday come into the full realization of what we only know in part now.  Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the hearts of men what God has prepared for those who love Him and live according to His purpose.

Lee

THE 144,000

By

Lee

THE ONLY PLACE IN THE BIBLE THAT MENTIONS 144,000 IS REVELATION 7 AND 14.

ASV Revelation 7:3-4

 3.  saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

 4.  And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:

ASV Revelation 14:1

 1.  And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads.

THE WORD "SEALED" IS A KEY WORD THAT PAUL EXPLAINS MEANS HAVING THE HOLY SPIRIT.

ASV 2 Corinthians 1:21-22

 21.  Now he that establisheth us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God;

 22.  who also sealed us, and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

ASV Ephesians 1:13-14

 13.  in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,-- in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

 14.  which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory.

ASV Ephesians 4:30

 30.  And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.

TO BE SEALED IS TO HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THIS WILL BE THOSE WHO ARE IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION.

MOUNT ZION IS ANOTHER KEY WORD.

ASV Joel 2:32

 32.  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered; for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those that escape, as Jehovah hath said, and among the remnant those whom Jehovah doth call.

ASV Obadiah 1:21

 21.  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be Jehovah's.

ASV Hebrews 12:22-23

 22.  but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels,

 23.  to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

THE 144,000 ARE WITH JESUS AT HIS RETURN ON MOUNT ZION.  THE 144,000 ARE SAID TO BE THE REDEEMED FROM THE EARTH.

KJV Revelation 14:3

 3.  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

REDEEMED MEANS HAVING SALVATION AND THE 144,000 BY THIS TIME ARE SPIRIT BEINGS. PAUL SAID THAT HAVING THE HOLY SPIRIT IS WHAT SEALS US TO THE DAY OF REDEMPTION.  EVERYONE THAT HAS HAD THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM ADAM TILL THE RETURN OF CHRIST ARE RESURRECTED IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION AND STAND WITH JESUS ON MOUNT ZION AND HAVE BEEN REDEEMED FROM THE EARTH.  HEBREWS TELLS US THAT THE SAINTS BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER CHRIST ARE ALL RESURRECTED AT THE SAME TIME.

KJV Hebrews 11:39-40

 39.  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

 40.  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

THE "THESE ALL" ARE THE SAINTS OF THE TIME BEFORE CHRIST.  THESE SAINTS AND THOSE WHO CAME AFTER CHRIST WILL BE RESURRECTED TOGETHER.

KJV 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

 15.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

 16.  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

 17.  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

THOSE WHO ARE ASLEEP ARE THOSE WHO HAVE DIED LIKE MOSES FOR EXAMPLE.

KJV Hebrews 11:24-26

 24.  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

 25.  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

 26.  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

KJV Hebrews 11:35

 35.  Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

ALL THE OLD COVENANT PEOPLE WHO HAD GOD'S SPIRIT WILL BE IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION ALONG WITH THOSE OF NEW COVENANT TIMES, ALL AT THE SAME TIME, BECAUSE THEY WILL NOT BE MADE PERFECT WITHOUT US.  THE 144,000 THEN ARE ALL THE SAINTS FROM THE TIME OF ADAM UNTIL THE DOORS ARE SHUT AT THE TRIBULATION BEFORE JESUS RETURNS. THE HOPE OF A SAINT TODAY IS THE SAME HOPE OF THOSE WHO LIVED LONG AGO. THE PASSAGE OF TIME DOES NOT CHANGE THE HOPE. THE SAME SPIRIT THAT IS IN US WAS IN THEM. THE SAINTS ARE TO RULE WITH CHRIST AND DAVID IS ONE OF THE SAINTS AS WELL AS ALL THE REST OF THE OLD COVENANT SAINTS.

KJV Revelation 20:5-6

 5.  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

6.  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

 

KJV Psalms 16:1-3

 1.  Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.

 2.  O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;

 3.  But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.

KJV Zechariah 14:5

5.  And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

KJV Matthew 27:52-53

 52.  And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, (THESE ARE SAINTS THAT DIED BEFORE JESUS DID.)

 53.  And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

KJV Ephesians 2:19-21

 19.  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

 20.  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

21.   In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

THE ENTIRE BUILDING OF GOD IS THE PROPHETS AND APOSTLES REFERRING TO OLD AND NEW COVENANT SAINTS WITH CHRIST AS THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE OR THE ONE WHICH ALL HAD FAITH IN.

IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE IF SOMEONE LOOKED FORWARD TO CHRIST AS THE OLD COVENANT SAINTS DID IN FAITH OR IF WE LOOK BACK AT CHRIST IN FAITH. TIME IS IRRELEVANT BECAUSE FAITH IS TIMELESS, BECAUSE GOD IS TIMELESS. 

THE 144,000 ARE THE REDEEMED FROM THE EARTH, SAINTS THAT ARE SEALED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WILL LIVE AND REIGN WITH CHRIST AT THE FIRST RESURRECTION ARE GATHERED FROM THE FOUR WINDS TO MOUNT ZION FROM ALL OF TIME SINCE CREATION TO HIS RETURN. 

AS INCREDIBLE AS IT MAY SOUND THERE ARE ONLY 144,000 PEOPLE OF ALL THE WORLD SINCE ADAM THAT  ARE ELECT SAINTS OF SPIRITUAL ISRAEL AND WILL TOGETHER BE IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION AS THE ELECT OF GOD.

THERE WILL BE AN INNUMERABLE MULTITUDE THAT MUST GO THROUGH THE TRIBULATION AND BECOME SAINTS AT THAT TIME WHO MUST BE MARTYRS AND WILL ALSO BE IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION BUT WILL NOT BE INCLUDED IN THE ELECT. 

This multitude will be converted by the preaching of the two witnesses during the tribulation.

KJV Revelation 7:9-17

 9.  After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

 10.  And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

 11.  And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,

 12.  Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

 13.  And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

14.  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

 15.  Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

 16.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

 17.  For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

THESE PEOPLE ARE LAODICEANS WHO REPENT DURING THE TRIBULATION BECAUSE OF THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL BY THE TWO WITNESSES.

THEY WILL BE KILLED BY THE BEAST BECAUSE THEY WILL NOT ACCEPT HIS MARK BUT AFTER JESUS RETURNS THEY ARE RESURRECTED ALONG WITH THE 144,000. 

WHEN THE SCRIPTURE TALKS ABOUT A FUTURE MARTYRDOM OF THE SAINTS IT IS THESE PEOPLE AND NOT THE ELECT IT IS REFERRING TO.  THOSE WHO ARE ALIVE AND REMAIN TILL JESUS RETURNS ARE PROTECTED BY GOD FROM THE TRIBULATION.

KJV Revelation 3:10

 10.  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

 The church today is scattered to the four winds and will be gathered from there when Jesus returns.  They are in small groups here and there but not having any power in the world because the power of the holy people was to be broken in the end times.

KJV Daniel 12:7

 7.  And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

KJV Daniel 7:25

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

The church is the Israel of God. There are two Israel’s, physical and spiritual, it is the spiritual that will be the saints of God.  Paul said this in Romans.

KJV Romans 9:6-8

 6.  Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

 7.  Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

8.  That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

The church is and will be composed of people before and after Christ of all walks of life both Jew and Gentile but are not grafted into physical but spiritual Israel, the Israel of God.

KJV Galatians 6:15-16

 15.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

 16.  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

The 144,000 are not Jews from the current nation of Israel.  The Jews were only one tribe and the other tribes are not known today. Jews today are of physical Israel and are the elect under the law, the old covenant. Jews today do not believe Jesus is their Messiah. 

Abraham will be in the 144000 as will king David and all the prophets and there is no way to know exactly how many people before Jesus had the Holy Spirit.  Moses wanted a better resurrection, the first that contains the 144000 and the innumerable multitude. Since Moses will not go through the great tribulation, it follows that he will be one of the elect.

Having the Holy Spirit is what seals a person to the day they are redeemed.  It does not matter how long someone has been dead and God will add to the church daily such as should be saved so that means people can be added up to the time there is enough to finish the number of 144000.